Experiments Inattentional blindness

1 experiments

1.1 invisible gorilla test
1.2 real-world experiment
1.3 computer red cross experiment
1.4 clown on unicycle
1.5 blindness despite fixation
1.6 effects of expertise

experiments

to test inattentional blindness, researchers ask participants complete primary task while unexpected stimulus presented. afterwards, researchers ask participants if saw unusual during primary task. arien mack , irvin rock describe series of experiments demonstrated inattentional blindness in 1998 book, inattentional blindness.

invisible gorilla test

the best-known study demonstrating inattentional blindness invisible gorilla test, conducted daniel simons of university of illinois @ urbana-champaign , christopher chabris of harvard university. study, revised version of earlier studies conducted ulric neisser, neisser , becklen in 1975, asked subjects watch short video of 2 groups of people (wearing black , white t-shirts) passing basketball around. subjects told either count passes made 1 of teams or keep count of bounce passes vs. aerial passes. in different versions of video woman walks through scene carrying umbrella (as discussed above) or wearing full gorilla suit. after watching video, subjects asked whether noticed out of ordinary taking place. in groups, 50% of subjects did not report seeing gorilla (or woman umbrella). failure perceive anomalies attributed failure attend while engaged in difficult task of counting passes of ball. these results indicate relationship between in 1 s visual field , perception based more on attention thought.

out 228 participants of tests, 194 – did count passes correctly – used statistical purposes further. percentage low 8% in 1 of 16 tests performed.

the basic simons , chabris study reused on british television public safety advert designed point out potential dangers cyclists caused inattentional blindness in motorists. in advert gorilla replaced moon-walking bear.

a real-world experiment

in 1995, officer kenny conley chasing shooting suspect. undercover officer in same vicinity , mistakenly taken down other officers while conley ran , failed notice. jury later convicted officer conley of perjury , obstruction of justice, believing had seen fight , lied protect fellow officers, yet stood word had, in fact, not seen it.

christopher chabris, adam weinberger, matthew fontaine , daniel j. simons took upon see if scenario possible. designed experiment in participants asked run 30 feet behind experimenter, , count how many times touched head. fight staged appear 8 meters off path, , visible approximately 15 seconds. procedure in entirety lasted 2 minutes , 45 seconds, , participants asked report number of times had seen experimenter touch head either hand (medium load), both hands (high load), or not instructed count @ (low load). after run, participants asked 3 questions: 1) if had noticed fight; 2) if had noticed juggler, , 3) if had noticed dribbling basketball. questions 2) , 3) control questions, , no 1 falsely reported these true.

participants more notice fight when experiment done during day opposed in dark. additionally, sightings of fight reported in low load condition (72%) in either medium load (56%), or high load conditions (42%). these results exemplify real world occurrence of inattentional blindness, , provide evidence officer conley indeed have missed fight because attention focused elsewhere. moreover, these results add body of knowledge suggesting perceptual load increases, less resources remain process items not explicitly focused on, , in turn episodes of inattentional blindness become more frequent.

computer red cross experiment

another experiment conducted steven most, along daniel simons, christopher chabris , brian scholl. instead of basketball game, used stimuli presented computer displays. in experiment objects moved randomly on computer screen. participants instructed attend black objects , ignore white, or vice versa. after several trials, red cross unexpectedly appeared , traveled across display, remaining on computer screen 5 seconds. results of experiment showed though cross distinctive black , white objects both in color , shape, third of participants missed it. had found people may attentionally tuned perceptual dimensions, such brightness or shape. inattentional blindness occur if unexpected stimuli presented resembles environment.

clown on unicycle

one interesting experiment displayed how cell phones contributed inattentional blindness in basic tasks such walking. stimulus experiment brightly colored clown on unicycle. individuals participating in experiment divided 4 sections. either talking on phone, listening mp3 player, walking or walking in pairs. study showed individuals engaged in cell phone conversations least notice clown. experiment designed ira e. hyman, s. matthew boss, breanne m. wise, kira e. mckenzie , jenna m. caggiano @ western washington university.

blindness despite fixation

daniel memmert conducted experiment suggests individual can directly @ object , still not perceive it. experiment based on invisible gorilla experiment. participants children average age of 7.7 years. participants watched short video of six-player basketball game (three white shirts, 3 black shirts). participants instructed watch players wearing black shirts , count times team passed ball. during video person in gorilla suit walks through scene. film projected onto large screen (3.2 m x 2.4 m) , participants sat in chair 6 meters screen. participants eye movement , fixations recorded during video, , afterward participants answered series of questions.

only 40% of participants reported seeing gorilla. there no significant difference in accuracy of counting between 2 groups. analyzing eye movement , fixation data showed no significant difference in time spent looking @ players (black or white) between 2 groups. however, 60% of participants did not report seeing gorilla spent average of 25 frames (about 1 second) fixated on gorilla, despite not perceiving it.

a more common example of blindness despite fixation illustrated in game of three-card monte.

effects of expertise

another experiment conducted daniel memmert tested effects of different levels of expertise can have on inattentional blindness. participants in experiment included 6 different groups: adult basketball experts average of twelve years of experience, junior basketball experts average of 5 years, children had practiced game average of 2 years, , novice counterparts each age group. in experiment participants watched invisible gorilla experiment video. participants instructed watch players wearing white , count times team passed ball.

the results showed experts did not count passes more accurately novices did show adult subjects more accurate junior , child subjects. higher percentage of experts noticed gorilla compared novices , practiced children. 62% of adult experts , 60% of junior experts noticed gorilla, suggesting difference between 5 , twelve years of experience has minimal effect on inattentional blindness. however, 38% of adult, 35% of junior, , none of child novices noticed gorilla. 18% of children 2 years of practice noticed. suggests both age , experience can have significant effect on inattentional blindness.